In the manufacture of smoking products made from tobacco, the nature of the flavor and aroma produced by a smoking product has always been an important consideration. When a tobacco product has been prepared, one method for achieving desired flavor and aroma has involved the blending of various types of tobaccos. This method, however, can obviously be a complex and costly one and may still not provide a desired effect of flavor or aroma. For example, blending tobaccos from various parts of the world may still not provide a desired, fruity or cherry-like flavor in a smoking product. Accordingly, it has been common practice for many years in the tobacco art to add materials to tobacco products to modify the flavor or aroma thereof.
Many methods of adding flavors or aromas to tobacco smoke are known. However, the known methods have not been found to be completely satisfactory and have not been found to provide effective means for incorporation of specifically desired flavors or aromas in tobacco smoke, for example, cherry-like or fruity flavors.
When certain flavorful aldehydes per se are added to tobacco to make flavored smoking products, the loss of such aldehydes during the manufacturing process and during storage is very high, due to their relatively volatile nature. In addition to the undersirable loss of such materials, objectionable vapors may be encountered in the actual manufacturing process or during the storage of the resulting products prior to their use.
Certain alkyl esters of beta-methyl valeric acid have been taught as imparting a fruity, apple-like aroma and a nut-like flavor when incorporated in tobacco, as is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,391. However, as is pointed out in U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,485, such materials are relatively volatile substances with low odor threshold values which make them difficult substances to use in flavoring tobacco because of the problem of evaporation on prolonged storage of the treated tobacco. The monoesters of mono- and/or dialkyl malonates, which are taught as tobacco flavorants in U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,485 are said to produce a smoke flavor characterized by a fermented apple-peel with an English walnut-like taste. Such materials, however, provide only a limited form of flavor enhancement in tobacco products.
When flavorants are adsorbed on an absorbent, such as activated charcoal or fuller's earth, and applied to tobacco, the yield of flavor when such tobacco is smoked has been found to be very low. In addition, such a process results in the incorporation in the tobacco of a foreign material which can give an undesirable appearance to the tobacco and which can result in uneven burning of the tobacco.
The incorporation in tobacco of flavorants in the form of clathrates has been not only expensive but has also been found to be inefficient, since the yield of flavor when tobacco containing such clathrates is burned has been found to be very low.
Certain esters, for example, menthol succinate or menthol borate, have also been prepared and added to tobacco. However, the yield of flavorant when the tobacco product containing such succinates or borates is smoked has also been found to be very low.
The present invention provides for the incorporation in tobacco or other smoking material of a compound which will impart cherry-like or fruity flavors to the smoke thereof, which compound is not lost during manufacturing and storage and which compound is readily released when the tobacco is smoked. If desired, more than one flavorant may, in accordance with the invention be simultaneously incorporated in the tobacco or other smoking material.
It is an object of this invention to permit the incorporation of a flavor into a tobacco product, which flavor will not be lost or altered during subsequent manufacturing steps or during storage of the tobacco product.
It is a further object of this invention to permit the incorporation of a material in tobacco, which material will release one or more flavorants into the tobacco smoke which results when the tobacco containing said material is smoked.
It is a further object of the present invention to control the amount of flavor or flavors released during the smoking of a tobacco product to insure uniformity of flavor during the entire smoking process.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a flavoring composition which is uniquely suited for use in tobacco products.
One of the more specific objects of the present invention is to incorporate cherry-like or fruity flavors in a tobacco product in such a manner than they will not be released prior to the time that the tobacco product is smoked but will be readily and efficiently released as the tobacco product is smoked.
Another of the more specific objects of the present invention is to incorporate an additive in tobacco which, when the tobacco is smoked, will not only release cherry-like or fruit-like flavor but will also release one or more additional flavorants.
A still further object of this invention is a composition and method for incorporating in tobaccos, smoking materials, including natural reconstituted tobaccos and tobacco substitutes, flavors or aromas which may be desired and which may be lacking in said smoking materials.